In conventional telephone networks, often one party to a telephone connection is placed on hold by a second party. In such cases, the party that has been placed on hold is required to stay on the line and wait to be serviced. While holding on the line, the party is not available to apply themselves to other activities but rather must remain attentive to the phone line in case the call is taken off of hold. Thus, during the period that a party is on-hold, he/she is often underutilized and certainly is not entirely free to involve themselves in other activities.
In recent years, a number of new telephone service features have been provided by an AIN. The AIN evolved out of a need to increase the capabilities of the telephone network architecture in order to meet the growing needs of telephone customers or users. The AIN architecture generally comprises two networks, a data messaging network and a trunked communications network. The trunked communications network handles voice and data communications between dispersed network locations, whereas the data messaging network is provided for controlling operations of the trunked communications network.
While prior telephone systems have addressed numerous shortcomings in the art, they have failed to address the requirement that a party, who has been placed on hold, must stay on the line and wait to be serviced. It would be highly desirable if the party that has been placed on hold could hang up and automatically be notified when the other party becomes available. The present invention is directed to such a solution.